Transporting and placing small parts at disposal in a unordered state is known. This unordered state of components does not allow precise positioning of these parts for assembly or manufacturing processes without the additional separation and handling. Moreover, transporting components as bulk material may damage the components. This is especially the case with components in micro system technology and in light engineering.
Furthermore, providing a carrier with multiple pockets covered with lids, so-called trays, is also known. Carriers of this type are usually used only as transport containers for stored components. Automatic further processing of components in assembly and production is only possible with additional costs and effort, because removing covers can only be automated with great difficulty, and in addition complicates handling the single components, by way of illustration with simple gripper systems. A complex gripper system, which for example has to be provided with an image processing device for determining the orientation and the position of the components, is required for handling and removing the components. Moreover, a fundamental disadvantage of these carriers with pockets is that due to the design of the pockets, the components located in the magazine are not accessible from all sides; however for processing, inspection or cleaning, the small components have to be accessible from all sides. In practice at any rate, processing the small components inside the carrier with pockets is impossible.
Furthermore, fixing small components on foil belts or so-called gel-paks by means of an adhesive layer is known. The gel-paks respectively foil belts possess no articulated structure and therefore are only suited to a limited extent for automated processing production. Placing the small components at disposal, by way of illustration for automated assembly, in this case, too, has to occur by means of additional handling steps. This again requires suited grippers. These grippers have to be provided with an additional image processing, because the location of the small components is only roughly defined on the foil belt and no defined pickup of the small components can otherwise occur. In this case, too, measures which make the small components accessible from all sides, by way of illustration in production, are not possible, because at least one side of the small component lies on the adhesive surface and is not freely accessible. An additional disadvantage are the residues of adhesive adhering to the small components, which gains in significance with the increasing miniaturization of components and practically does not allow use of such gel-paks or foil belts in micro systems technology.
Magazines for the fixation of small components, on which the formulation of the generic part of claim is based, are known from EP 0 392 331 A1 or DE 41 16 866 A1:
From EP 0 392 331 A1, a magazine for jewelry stones or other small components is known, which as a magazine base carrier is provided with a magazine strip composed of a plastic foil provided with recesses for the reception of jewelry stones. The recesses are adapted at least to one partial profile of the jewelry stones to be positioned and disposed in rows.
As holding means, retaining lips are provided adjacent to the recesses. In a closed position, these retaining lips grip the positioned jewelry stones and thereby fix their position. For this purpose, the retaining lips of the magazines known from EP 0 392 331 A1 are pretensioned in a resilient manner and hold the jewelry stones in the fixed position after the stones have been pressed into the recesses. Multiple parallel rows of recesses for the reception of the jewelry stones are possible so that even leaf-shaped respectively matrix-shaped type embodiments are possible whose length and width are about the same.
Accordingly, the retaining lips can be disengaged from the jewelry stones by means of elastic deformation. For this purpose, the retaining lips are disposed continuously in the longitudinal or transverse direction of the magazine strip and are provided with a downward, continuous, open section. For removal of the jewelry stones, the exterior retaining lips are bent outward, i.e. away from the stones. In this way, the retaining lips are disengaged from the jewelry stones so that the stones can be removed. In particular, the retaining lips can be disengaged from the jewelry stones by expanding the magazine strip in a transverse direction to the disposition direction of the retaining lips. The stones can then be removed by means of a dapper or a vacuum suction cup. However, expansion makes it difficult to remove small components in random sequence, i.e. in the event of matrix array to remove them successively from different rows and columns.
The operation steps of inserting the filled magazine strip into the guide rails, moving the magazine strips along the guide rails and the subsequent removal can occur completely automated due to the open retaining lips. Transport of the magazine strip can, by way of illustration, occur by means of a roller disposed on the bottom side of the strip, with the conveyor devices engaging from below behind the recesses and moving the magazine strips forward. The magazine strips can also be used for cuboid electronic components.
The generic magazine known from EP 0 392 331 A1 has a number of drawbacks: the to-be-stored small components are inserted into recesses whose inner contour is matched to the outer held securely in an interlocking and stressfree manner in this way, they are not accessible in the magazine for processing steps. For processing, but also for inspection and cleaning, the small components have to be removed from these recesses in the magazine. Moreover, the magazine is suited only for one shape and one size of the small components to be stored. Use of the magazine in mixed production or for dispatching different small components is therefore impossible.
A generic type magazine for the fixation of small components, namely jewelry stones, is also known from DE 41 16 866 A1, which is provided with a magazine strip as the magazine base carrier in which through-going holes are provided into which the jewelry stones are inserted. The holding means are formed by the magazine base carrier being provided with a sandwich structure, the middle layer of which is soft and has in the bordering wall of each hole a ring-shaped groove into which the diamond-shaped jewelry stones are pressed. Although this magazine permits inspection of the stored small components, it has the drawback that the design of the firmly applied holding means only permits storing small components with a specific outer contour and, in addition, a fixed, predetermined diameter. Storing optical micro components, such as by way of illustration rod lenses as are used for endoscopes, is impossible in magazines of this type. Processing small components is also only possible to a limited extent due to the unstable holding means. In particular, it cannot be adapted to different shapes of the components.